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April 22, 2014

KOOTANCHORU RECIPE / கூட்டாஞ்சோறு-TRAVEL LUNCH IDEAS

Tirunelveli famous Kootanchoru @ kadamba sadam is one of the signature recipes of my mom.Mostly Nellai people make this rice for picnic/trips and for guests.This is one of the best foods for travel.It stays good for one to two days without refrigeration.When(me & my sis) we were young,we used to go to thatha,aachi’s house in Nellai for every summer vacation.My periamma and chithi also comes with their family.We go for a one day trip to tiruchendur & kutralam every year.Amma,periamma and chithi together prepare this rice in early morning in a big eeya paanai traditionally for 10-12 people and pack in a big vaali(thooku chatti) for travel.We have this rice for lunch in a piece of vazhai ilai(banana leaf) after a nice bath in five falls,kutralam. With the awesome smell of banana leaf,it tastes great & we all have minimum of two servings.Vathal/vadagam or appalam is the best side dish for kootanchoru.This rice tastes the best after it cools down.

Last week my mom was with me for two days.I told her to prepare this rice for our lunch and of course for blogging because some of my Nellai readers asked me to share kootanchoru recipe after trying my uluntham paruppu sadam.I asked my mom to prepare using pressure cooker but mom said making this rice in eeya paanai or indalium vessel or kadai gives the right consistency to the rice,vegetables and tastes great.As she said,it was very flavourful and tasty.But she also told the method on how to make in pressure cooker if needed.I have shared it below .Kootanchoru is very easy to prepare if u have chopped onions & vegetables ready in hand.It takes just 20 minutes to prepare this rice.I personally feel,it is better to do chopping & grinding work the previous night if u plan to make this rice for next day travel.
Sendhil had it for the first time and loved it.We had this rice for lunch and the leftover for dinner too.My mom & dad packed this rice in a foil box & took it for their train journey.Friends,if u plan for a picnic,do prepare this rice.I am sure u can have a delectable lunch.

Grind red chillies adding required water to make a smooth paste.This is paste-1.Set aside.

Wash and peel the small onions,garlic cloves and grind with jeera& water to make paste-2.

Soak tamarind in enough water.Take the extract using 1.5 cups of water and mix the paste-1 & paste-2,turmeric powder and salt.

Wash and chop all the vegetables of uniform size and keep the raw banana & potato cubes immersed in water till use.Chop drumstick,chop raw mango into big cubes as shown in the picture.

In a big vessel(preferably, eeya paanai or indalium vessel) take the mentioned quantity of water.When the water starts to boil,add toor dal,turmeric powder.Allow it to cook till the dal blossoms.It should be mashable.

After the dal is 3/4th cooked,add all the vegetables & keerai(greens) except raw mango pieces.It takes 10 minutes for all the vegetables to cook.Keep stirring whenever necessary.

After 10 minutes,wash and add the rice.Again boil for 10-15 minutes and check whether rice is done.Rice absorbs all the water and gets cooked.Add the required salt.

Check if the rice is cooked properly.Use back of the ladle to mix the rice to avoid it turning too mushy.In the mean time,heat 1tbsp oil in a kadai and saute onions,green chillies & add to rice.

Kootanchoru name is new to me but kadhamba sadam i heared it somewhere :).My grand ma do it ...Yes it seems to be a little long process ,when we cut the veggies the day before really its easy to make them the next day .

hi chitra, thanks for the recipe.i was searching for this receipe so long.though i never tasted it,the name itself tempted me.thats why i requested you to share the recipe.thank u once again.surely i will try and give my feedback.i have a doubt,this rice should be of udir udir consistecy like that of veg rice or mashed like sambar sadam, and when to add the keerais.